When you ask why are so many people out in the street, I'd say we've reached a tipping point, in the original, pre-Malcolm Gladwell use of the term. The scale that's tipping, simply, is justice. It was already going over when the torture report hit like a ton of bricks.

In just the last couple of months the answer has shifted from radical Islamists, to Russia, back to radical Islamists with the rise of ISIS, to Ebola, and now back to radical Islamists. But nobody seems to be getting at the underlying assumption that these issues represent significant threats to the welfare of the American people.

President Obama has still not responded to the 100,000+ Americans who signed the We the People petition demanding ECPA reform (it's been 152 days -- for comparison, a petition to build a Death Star got a response within 29 days.).

Our state of affairs goes against a pinnacle of American justice, equality before law, facilitating everything from war crimes, to torture, to domestic spying, to a predatory, ravenous Wall Street that feeds on the middle class with impunity.

Meanwhile, the latest NSA disclosure revealed just how deep the U.S. government's was willing to go to listen in on communications both at home and abroad -- eavesdropping that involves Carter more in name than in spirit.

Just remember, next time you're buying a book at the airport, speeding on the highway, posting a Tweet, sending a text message, or reading an article like this one online: They're always watching - and we're the ones who decided we could live with that.

We gather here today to mourn the passing of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Although weakened and battered in the past, it seems that it has finally succumbed and will be heard of no more.

Seriously, do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have your boss ask you to get reporters to write about something he can't tell you about? I did it for years and let's just say, it stretches you as a communicator.

The government's actions likely have already succeeded in deterring government officials from confiding in journalists about national security matters. And that, of course, is the administration's real objective.